Broadcast News Abandons Climate Change Coverage, Study Finds

Despite being packed with record-breaking weather events, 2016 saw a significant drop in broadcast news coverage of climate change, according to a study released Thursday.

The collective coverage of climate change on ABC, NBC, CBS and Fox News Sunday in 2016 was only a third of what it was in 2015, according to the nonprofit watchdog Media Matters. The year’s coverage of climate change was the least since 2011, the study found.

Media Matters broke down the coverage on Sunday shows and nightly news shows, which Fox News does not have.

Media Matters

Overall, climate change coverage on the networks dropped from a combined 146 minutes in 2015 to just 50 in 2016, with none of the networks showing an increase. ABC, with just six minutes of coverage, took the title for least air time on the subject. NBC had the biggest decrease, from 50 minutes in 2015 to 10 minutes last year.

There was also the signing of the Paris Climate Agreement and ample opportunity to correct false climate claims made on the 2016 presidential campaign trail.

ABC, NBC, CBS and Fox News Sunday did not air a single segment “informing viewers of what to expect on climate change and climate-related policies or issues under a Trump or Clinton administration,” Media Matters pointed out.

The outlier was PBS, which aired 21 segments on the Paris climate conference, while the other networks aired five or fewer.

This graph shows the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, as measured at&nbsp;Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii, from 1958 to today. In September, scientists at Mauna Loa announced that C02 levels had <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/carbon-dioxide-400ppm-permanent_us_57eb7636e4b082aad9b7e9ab">likely&nbsp;surpassed the threshold of 400 parts per million permanently</a>.